Grants Awarded in 2018

For the Senior School Support Manager (“Senior SSM”), a new program staff position. Blue Engine recruits, trains, and supports Blue Engine Teaching Assistants (“BETAs”), recent college graduates who work alongside mentor teachers to help students develop “college ready” skills in mathematics, literacy and growth mindset. This hybrid team teaching model accelerates student learning while simultaneously building a local pipeline of effective educators within historically oppressed communities. This year, 70 BETAs are supporting 1,400 students in nine partner schools across NYC. The Senior SSM will oversee and work alongside of two School Support Managers to provide all BETAs with non-instructional support, professional development and community building. This position is important to their efforts of achieving improved outcomes for students, while investing in work to make their model and organization more consistently effective, financially sustainable and scalable.

For continued support of their Managing Director of Programs who oversees all of Bottom Line’s programs, ensuring that they consistently deliver quality college access and success services to over 2,800 New York City students from low-income backgrounds. Bottom Line’s program includes two main components: the College Access Program which serves high school seniors; and the College Success Program which serves students all of the way through college. Next year, the Managing Director of Programs will focus in particular on expanding the number of students served in their College Success Program, deepening their partnerships with colleges and community based organizations, improving their Career Program services, refining their pilot programs, and testing new student-service strategies such as an early warning system for students who may be at risk of dropping out.

Boys & Girls Club of Paterson, Inc.d/b/a Boys & Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic

Paterson,NJ

For continued support of the Club Intervention Specialist who identifies students who display acute signs of academic and social vulnerability, and helps to create educational plans that provide the individuals with those interventions they may require to get back on track. While they provide comprehensive academic and enrichment programs for all of their more than 3,000 members at their 10 locations, these are the students who are typically the most troubled, the furthest behind, and the least likely to succeed. The Specialist will work collaboratively with the students, their parents, teachers, and Club staff to determine the learning deficiencies, social or familial barriers, and personal challenges that these students face, and will help tailor individualized plans to address the students’ needs and begin the process of returning him or her back to a successful path.

For a new Special Projects Director who will manage, support, and coordinate the people and resources needed to plan for, implement and evaluate three capacity-building projects that will allow them to improve their service: 1) adopt a standardized literacy tutoring curriculum; 2) enhance the pre-service training for their AmeriCorps members; and 3) build a year-long professional development plan for staff members on the Impact team, the front line managers for AmeriCorps members and staff at partner schools. City Year is a national educational nonprofit that partners with NYC Schools, mobilizing teams of young, energetic AmeriCorps Members who commit a year to work full-time in the City’s most under-resourced schools. They identify 3rd through 9th grade students who are off-track in three critical areas — attendance, behavior, and course performance — and offer tutoring, mentoring and enrichment activities to help these students get back on track toward academic and life-long success.

To support their Alumni Relations Coordinator who is responsible for seeing that their high school graduates matriculate to college, persevere through the myriad challenges they will face, and successfully graduate. Students from low-income families, as 84 percent of their scholars are, often require additional guidance to navigate the obstacles involved with maintaining their financial aid and scholarship compliance, housing, academics, and managing time and relationships. The Alumni Relations Coordinator will stay in touch with college students, track their progress, and offer academic, emotional, and financial advising and support, providing both immediate and long-term guidance to their graduates that will increase their college graduation rates. Coney Island Prep is a rigorous college-preparatory charter school located in the Coney Island community of Brooklyn that serves over 1,000 students in grades K-12.

To support the new Director of New Teacher Development position who will create a strategy for its New Teacher Development program. The goals are to formalize and standardize their new teacher recruiting and development processes across their network, provide new teachers with the programming necessary to become lead teachers in one year, and reduce the pressure on their recruiting team to hire only experienced teachers, which is especially important as they grow from 8 to 14 schools. In the 2018-2019 school year, their eight K-12 schools in Newark will be fully enrolled, educating over 4,200 students, growing to 14 schools in Newark over the next 5 years to serve over 7,000 students. Ensuring every classroom has a great teacher is critical to their achieving consistent and high levels of academic performance across their schools and to closing the achievement gap.

For a new Managing Director (“MD”) of Grades 5-12 Academics who will be an integral part of the Teaching and Learning Support Team. The MD will be focused on improving overall instructional teaching practices across schools and across content areas by leading a team of two instructional experts in English Language Arts and Math, and by supporting the development and implementation of the science curriculum and assessments in grades 5-8. They will work to align middle school and high school academics, with a specific focus on ensuring that middle school and high school academics build upon each other. KIPP NYC, a network of 11 schools — five elementary schools, feeding five middle schools, feeding the KIPP NYC College Prep High School — is part of a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public charter schools which prepare students in underserved communities for success in college and in life.

To support staffing for their recently launched Quality Education program priority. Lawyers Alliance will provide direct legal services to approximately 200 nonprofits improving educational opportunities and outcomes for low-income youth and other disadvantaged New Yorkers, while serving many more organizations through their educational programs, publications, and Resource Call Hotline. A Staff Attorney has been designated to develop and apply expertise regarding market trends, funding flows, regulatory issues and other factors affecting education. Working with staff colleagues and volunteers, the Staff Attorney will coordinate their outreach, legal services and trainings aimed at education nonprofits in NYC. This legal assistance and information will strengthen the programs, finances, and operations of the organizations they serve, better enabling them to deliver upon their respective missions with greater confidence and effectiveness.

For continued support to expand and strengthen their Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (“STEM”) programming within all four Clubhouses, ensuring the STEM staff members have the tools and training they need to successfully implement the curriculum. Using the Do-It-Yourself (“DIY”) STEM curriculum developed and tested by experienced educators at Boys & Girls Clubs of America, they will serve more than 180 Madison youth. STEM programming will be conducted by STEM Instructors at each site, and offered as part of their Juniors Academy comprehensive educational program for youth ages 10 to 12. Their goal is to provide a program that results in improved math and science test scores, gains in knowledge about STEM careers, and gains in 21st Century skills essential for STEM careers, such as decision-making, planning, problem-solving, reflecting, and teamwork, that will put them on a better path to success.

To provide continued support for the Bridge to College initiative which seeks to mitigate the issue of high school seniors not matriculating at college after having earlier accepted a college’s offer. New Visions alumni work with their high school alma mater as near-peer coaches for graduating 12th grade students, assisting students in completing a comprehensive checklist of matriculation tasks, such as housing and financial aid forms, class registrations, and placement exams. They guide students through the critical steps and decisions that college enrollment entails, and help raise their awareness of resources from which they can benefit. New Visions will provide ongoing training and support to coaches, and to the guidance counselors working with them, throughout the program. They will implement the program in 19 schools from their network of 79 district and charter schools, train 21 coaches, and reach 1,800 high school seniors.

To help pilot Crew Mentors, a new peer mentoring effort with their alumni, as part of their To and Through College Program. Over the past few years, they have successfully piloted and implemented College Crew, in which staff provide intensive supports to their most vulnerable high school graduates in college. Through Crew Mentors, an adaptation of College Crew, they will select, train, and support a group of their high school graduates currently enrolled in college to provide peer mentoring support to a broader universe of students just starting their post-secondary careers. They believe this is a scalable approach through which they can provide direct supports to many more of their alumni than they currently serve – supports that they believe will translate to higher completion rates for their students. Outward Bound Schools has a network of 11 expeditionary learning schools throughout the five Boroughs which they operate in partnership with the NYC Department of Education.

For the expansion of the Family Playlists pilot, an interactive, technology-based family engagement program, from 2 to 7 schools throughout New York City, helping them to better leverage technology to engage families in meaningful learning experiences at home. It is based on homework assignments that are developed in collaboration with teachers and assigned to students to complete with a family partner at home, resulting in improved student achievement, deeper family engagement, and more positive student and parent attitudes towards learning. They will provide coaching support for teachers on creating interactive playlists, communicating with families, and examining the feedback data to inform both family outreach and instructional strategies. This year they will focus on enhancing platform functionality based on feedback from the pilot year, developing content for additional grades and subjects, and demonstrating the program’s impact on student academic achievement.

For a Program Manager to support further expansion of ScriptEd’s Careers in Technology program model to serve 38 schools in NYC and provide 14 Advanced Classes, significantly expanding their advanced class offerings while deepening services provided in the classroom. They equip students in under-resourced schools with the fundamental coding skills and professional experiences that together create access to careers in technology. ScriptEd brings its tuition-free program directly to schools, where classes are taught by software developers on a volunteer basis. Selected students then apply their new coding skills in paid summer internships where they work with role models in the field as well, gaining the experience and confidence necessary to pursue a career in technology. The Program Manager will work with 6 schools and be responsible for a cohort of 80 to 100 students, liaising with the schools, supporting volunteers in lesson instruction and pedagogy, and ensuring program quality.

To provide continued support for the Associate Director of College Persistence for SEO College Scholars, which is important to SEO’s expansion efforts within New York City. The Associate Director has a greater role in overseeing the student transition process from high school to college in the spring, focuses on curriculum development of the annual College Success Series, oversees curriculum development for the student Winter Institute, and provides clinical supervision to a group of College Persistence Advisors. Strengthening the college program infrastructure is essential and mirrors the infrastructure enhancements in the high school component of the Scholars program that were instituted four years ago with the doubling of their student admissions. This fall, a cohort of 230 Freshmen will enter College Scholars, the first larger Scholars high school graduating class. SEO College Scholars is both a college access and a college persistence program, providing services throughout an eight-year span, from 9th grade through college graduation.

To support the Director of Alumni & Community Partnerships (“DACP”) to maximize the impact of the local movement for educational equality by connecting alumni to each other, to greater opportunities, and to the broader community. There are over 1,300 alumni who live and work in New Jersey, and the vast majority continue to work in education. The alumni team is growing in order to capitalize on the opportunity available in this expansive leadership force, and to better bridge the transition from a second-year teacher to an alumnus. The DACP will lead New Jersey’s efforts to galvanize TFA alumni leaders in education and foster greater partnerships within the communities that they serve, with a special emphasis on Newark. The goal is to ensure that alumni feel better connected to the local TFA network, are timely made aware of career opportunities, and are then supported in pursuing them.

For support of the 2018 NY Regional Institute which, in partnership with NYC’s Relay Graduate School of Education, will help to prepare incoming corps members to be more successful in the classroom and gain teacher certifications. The Institute also serves as a professional development and school leadership pipeline for the 90 experienced NYC educators who are hired as Institute staff, and then trained over several months to help them to develop helpful skills such as coaching new teachers and creating a vision for their work. Each corps member enrolls in Relay and takes credit-bearing graduate level courses taught by Relay Core Faculty during the 6-week Institute. The Relay curriculum is designed to develop pedagogical skills and deepen content knowledge through frequent, deliberate opportunities for practice, and complement the leadership development and coaching provided by TFA-NY staff during the Institute. The TFA-NY corps members will teach in high-need public schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan.

To support an Algebra Educational Coach who will work collaboratively with a Project Director and Senior Math Specialist to design, launch and field test a middle school program, intended to impact students’ mastery of the mathematics essential for algebra readiness and achievement. The primary role of the Coach will be to support teachers and administrators in NYC public schools in the implementation of the program. Drawing from an existing network of 36 schools that already have a strong data infrastructure for tracking students’ standards mastery in mathematics, the project will initially benefit approximately 60 NYC public school teachers and an estimated 2,500 low-income students. The goal of the program is for all students to successfully complete Algebra by the end of 9th grade, which has been shown to be a “gatekeeper” of student’s future success in high school and beyond. Teaching Matters is dedicated to increasing teacher effectiveness, one of the most critical factors regarding student success.

To support the expansion of Steps to Success, an afterschool enhancement that takes a holistic approach to supporting at-risk youths’ academic, social-emotional, college, and career success. Offered at fourteen of their middle school afterschool programs across Queens, Steps to Success seeks to impact school performance and persistence by strengthening the resiliency skills which research shows successful high school graduates possess. The program involves screening students for risk using the research-based Success Highways Resiliency Assessment, a Steps to Success class to build resiliency and goal-setting skills, and individualized support through youth advocates. The grant would support part of the salaries of two new youth advocates who will help facilitate the Steps to Success class, and provide individualized support to all students and intensive support to those identified as being at-risk. The Child Center is a 64-year old multiservice child and family organization with roots in mental health.

To support a new Community Engagement Coordinator, Engagement and Evaluation position. The GO Project provides year-round educational and family support services to 720 academically struggling public school students in grades K-8 in Lower Manhattan and in grades 1-2 at a new site in Brooklyn. They employ a multi-disciplinary approach including an intensive focus on academic fundamentals through differentiated instruction led by certified teachers, exposure to diverse enrichment programs, and extensive social services for the students and their families. As they expand their model in Brooklyn, they need to increase the depth and reach of their engagement and evaluation to match the growth in their programming and enrollment. This position will play a key role in their ability to establish and maintain partnerships with their public school partners, manage student and volunteer recruitment, and provide critical data management support.

To support a new Curriculum and Data Coordinator position and the continued development of their evaluation work. The Coordinator will develop and manage their data gathering and evaluation processes, ensure their measurements are normed and systemized, generate the assessment and work product review reports for teachers and schools, and update the materials on their Teacher Resource Library. The Writing Revolution (“TWR”) trains and supports teachers and school leaders in implementing The Hochman Method, an explicit set of evidence-based strategies for teaching writing. This carefully sequenced method for teaching writing can be embedded into any subject at any grade level, helping to ensure that students have the skills necessary to be successful in school and the workforce.

For support of the Program Manager at their Regional Program Office located at their new Urban Dove Team Charter School II (“UD Team II)” in the Bronx. UD Team II will be modeled after UD Team in Brooklyn, serving students aged 15-17 who are significantly in need of intervention to graduate from high school. The Program Manager will be responsible for overseeing UD’s youth development programs including the College All-Stars and the HiRisers peer mentoring program, with a focus on curriculum development, staff development and supervision, partnership management, and program quality assurance. All UD Team II students will participate in these youth development programs, which operate both during the school day and afterschool, providing them with the skills that they need to overcome obstacles, graduate from high school, and go on to careers or attend college.

To support a part-time, Licensed Clinician to participate as part of the Strong Mothers Program interdisciplinary team. The Program’s comprehensive approach helps more than 100 mothers each year become better parents through intensive case management, peer support, mentoring, and material assistance. The Clinician will enhance these services with the provision of behavioral health interventions to 20 or so program participants who exhibit a history of trauma, helping to address their deeper mental health and emotional regulation needs. The Clinician will also work with the current Strong Mothers staff to enhance their group education sessions curricula with more information on domestic violence, anger management, and trauma. The ultimate goal of the program is to help young pregnant and parenting women overcome trauma and be better and more effective parents. Forestdale is a child welfare agency headquartered in Queens, which supports family members in meeting life’s challenges through its foster care and preventive services.

To support the Program Director who will oversee every aspect of Northside’s Early Childhood Mental Health (“ECMH”) Program serving children aged 0-5 and their caregivers. Northside was awarded a 3-year grant by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which requires an annual private match, as the exclusive Manhattan provider of ECMH as part of the Thrive NYC initiative. Northside will engage with a different cohort of 15 of the 94 different Early Learn (“EL”) Centers each year in order to reach as many EL Centers as possible. Through their holistic ECMH Program, they will work closely with EL staff to identify children at risk and build techniques in the classroom to support healthy development in children who have experienced or are at-risk of trauma. They will also work with parents to help them identify mental health issues early and strengthen parent-child relationships at home. Through these efforts, they hope to help children from birth to five overcome challenges and thrive.

To support the development and implementation of a Supervisor Track for the Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (“CFTSI”) at their five nationally accredited, fully co-located Child Advocacy Centers (“CACs”) which provide family-centered, multidisciplinary team responses to help children who have been sexually or physically abused. CFTSI is a brief (five to eight sessions) evidence-based mental health intervention which, over the years, has led to significantly reduced trauma symptoms in the child victims and enhanced communication between the children and their caregivers. Over the past decade, they have worked in partnership with the CFTSI model developers at Yale to train staff and for follow-up clinical consultation. As their program staff has increased significantly over the past year, through the implementation of the CFTSI Supervisor Track they will broaden and deepen their own clinical leadership’s skill in providing CFTSI supervision and help to sustain this treatment.

To support a capacity building effort to promote leadership development at their agency, enhance their supervisory processes, and create ongoing tools for supporting managers in supervising their staff. This area was identified as a need during a year-long Trauma Informed Care Initiative which engaged staff across all units last year. They now seek to reinforce their trauma informed approach in Human Resources and will engage a consultant to conduct a two-day training during which managers and directors will work to develop skills and tools around supervisee motivation, communication and feedback skills, coaching and leadership development. All managers will produce development plans for each of their supervisees. Following this training, the consultant will provide follow-up one-on-one phone coaching in order to support the implementation of these development plans and to reinforce the skills and tools acquired during the training.

For continued support of the Senior Mental Health Case Manager, a position within their mental health team, dedicated to providing homeless and indigent families with personalized support in meeting their mental health treatment goals. Their mental health program addresses a health crisis in NYC — caring for vulnerable homeless and under-served women and children suffering from the traumatic effects of homelessness and domestic violence. The case managers screen patients for specific mental health issues, work with families to ensure they obtain necessary medications, keep appointments and receive coordinated mental and primary healthcare, and assist them with access to social services. The Floating Hospital is a diagnostic and treatment center and outpatient mental health clinic located in Long Island City, NY, which provides a broad range of medical, dental and mental health services via free van transportation to a largely medically underserved population, regardless of their insurance status or inability to pay.

To expand the Trauma Clinician position to full-time, increasing his ability to provide timely mental health treatment to justice-involved youth, adults, and their families who are part of Osborne’s Children, Youth, and Family Services, Workforce Development, and Court Advocacy Services programs. The Trauma Clinician will provide individual and family mental health treatment at no cost to those with limited access to specialized healthcare. The Clinician will also provide training sessions so Osborne staff can learn to effectively screen and identify participants with trauma histories and symptomology, and offer individual consultations to help staff provide better trauma-informed services to participants. The Osborne Association serves individuals and families impacted by the criminal justice system, providing opportunities for them to achieve self-sufficiency, adopt healthy lifestyles, form and rebuild families, and rejoin their communities after incarceration.

To support a Program Coordinator who will support staff development and service delivery as they launch the Horizons Workforce Development Program at Landing Road, a new employment-focused shelter and housing facility in the Bronx. This expansion will nearly double the capacity of the existing Horizons Program, their signature program that provides employment services to homeless men and women working to achieve independence and stability. Horizons uses an individualized approach to help residents identify and develop professional strengths, thereby giving them the skills to find and maintain employment independently. Landing Road is based on a new financing model developed by BRC that involves building a shelter as well as housing on the same site, and using income received from operating the shelter to permanently subsidize the housing, making it affordable to a low-income population.

For continued support of the Career Specialist for the Career Launch program which will expand to reach more and younger teens in order to better prepare them for success in the workplace and in higher education. The Specialist will work with 150 youth ages 13 to 18, up from 75 youth ages 16 to 18 served in the pilot year, guiding them in career exploration and planning, including introductions to different career paths. They will collaborate with the business community to provide workshops, mock interviews, internship and employment opportunities, and career mentors. Through one-on-one and group career counseling, engaging experiential activities, and exposure to career opportunities, they hope to prepare the teens with the work readiness, interpersonal and soft skills needed as they prepare to enter post-secondary education and the workforce. Their clubs in thirteen locations throughout Union County provide youth development and education programs for boys and girls ages 5-18.

To support a new Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement (“QA/QI”) Specialist for the Children and Youth Department who will: develop a tracking system; devise dashboards; and provide department staff with real-time data that will be used to enhance service delivery. The Specialist will also regularly provide the senior leadership with timely data that can be used to support planning, public outreach, and fundraising efforts. The Specialist’s work will enable the Children and Youth Department programs — which are staffed by 150 people, serve over 2,600 young people ages 13 to 24, and are spread across eight locations — to have a uniform data tracking system that will support QA/QI efforts. BronxWorks is a settlement house which provides programs and services that help to improve the economic and social well being of individuals, families and communities in the Bronx which are most in need.

For tutoring and customer service training for participants in their recently launched Emergency Medical Technician(“EMT”) healthcare track designed to attract and train more young men for entry into the growing and well-paid healthcare field. It is a program of the Career Academy, an innovative sector-based workforce development program that prepares non-college-bound graduates and disconnected, out-of-school, out-of-work youth aged 18-24 to enter the healthcare field with the ability to earn a livable wage and have significant opportunities for advancement over time. The EMT program model is a partnership that has the promise of sustained success for participant employment as it includes a job preparation Bridge Program conducted by CDI concurrently with Occupational Training conducted by the Borough of Manhattan Community College, followed by intensive training and certification at Northwell Health, an employer which has the capacity to hire a large number of the well-prepared candidates.

To support the groundwork for and launch of the Peer Coordinator Model (“PCM”) which utilizes exemplary CASA volunteers to serve as Peer Coordinators to coach and support their own teams of Advocates, effectively serving as volunteer supervisors. The model represents a paradigm shift in organizational structure, moving CASA significantly closer, without increasing staff, to its goal of providing an advocate and voice for each of the 500+ Union County foster youths that need one. CASA volunteers monitor unmet medical, emotional and educational needs of foster youth and seek timely action on issues interfering with a youth’s best interest. CASA recruits, screens, trains, supervises and supports community volunteers to act as Advocates for children from birth to age 21 who have been removed from their homes due to domestic abuse, neglect and/or abandonment and placed in foster care.

For the continued support of the Volunteer Coordinator, who is responsible for volunteer recruitment, screening, training and support. CASA volunteers receive 33 hours of pre-service training and are then assigned by family court judges to the cases of children who are at a high risk of “falling through the cracks” within the foster care system. They assess the individual needs of each child and family, collaborate with all involved parties to get those needs met, and work to ensure that children move out of foster care and into safe, permanent and loving homes as quickly as possible. Advocates work intensively with youth aging out of foster care to help them prepare to live independently. The Volunteer Coordinator will continue to grow CASA’s team of volunteers by recruiting and training 72 new volunteers this year and by increasing the linguistic and cultural diversity of their volunteers. Their goal over the next two years is to match 90 percent of the 1,100 children served with dedicated CASA volunteers.

To partially support the Program Director position at the new Prince Joshua Avitto Community Center located in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Center is designed as a flexible-use facility that will serve as a hub for youth and family services in the community, providing them with a safe space to engage in a range of activities including academic programming, recreation, vocational preparation, family support services, and community development. The Program Director will oversee all aspects of Center operations, including being the guiding force behind programming, engaging youth and families in the community, and ensuring services offered align to the mission and vision of Good Shepherd Services. In total, they envision the Community Center serving about 2,500 youth and adults per year. Good Shepherd Services is a leading New York City multi-service agency serving over 30,000 participants annually through more than 85 programs.

To partially support the new Career Bridge Program which will create 20 hours of additional career and technology programming, and work with students to find immediate jobs while continuing to receive career and technology education leading to career advancement and sustainable living wages. They will use MyBestBets, a web-based postsecondary and career exploration platform that guides low-income individuals through the planning of a financially sustainable career. The grant will support a Career Bridge Peer Coach which will allow them to substantially increase the number of students who receive career training and one-on-one coaching, and help them to better track their students’ career progress. Grace Outreach provides programs for low-income women aged 18+ to help them to strengthen their academic skills and acquire a high school equivalency diploma, and to help them prepare for both higher education options and employment pathways to higher-wage jobs and careers.

To support the Family Success Supervisor who oversees the work of their four Family Coaches, assisting them to better address the needs of each of the families in the Family Success Initiative. The Initiative is a continuum of services for families, including parenting interventions that help parents to develop the key skills, resilience, and support systems to safely parent their children in order to either reunify with their children who are in foster care, or prevent their children from entering the foster care system. The Supervisor supports the Family Coaches as they help parents work toward their short-term and long-term goals by: providing ongoing one-on-one support; conducting interventions including parent peer support groups to reduce social isolation; and visit coaching during supervised visits with children in foster care. The key aim is to ensure that these children have a loving, safe and permanent family.

To support a Career and Education Pathways Access Coordinator for the GrandLo Cafe at Essex Crossing, a new nonprofit social enterprise job training program. The program will serve 60 “opportunity youth” every year, youth who face steep barriers to future achievement due to poor educational attainments, etc. The youth will receive training in hard and soft skills and comprehensive supportive services to help them overcome difficult life circumstances, helping them reduce their respective barriers to long-term employment. The Coordinator will guide the youth in creating an individual Career and Education Pathways Plan, and track the participants’ progress during and after the program to gauge the program’s effectiveness and to provide further support if necessary. Grand Street Settlement provides comprehensive educational programs and social services to people of all ages residing on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, and Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn.

To support a new Chief Talent Officer position in support of their Top Talent Initiative to help take their Human Resources Department to the next level of performance. The Chief Talent Officer will add tremendous expertise and leadership to their talent acquisition, management, and human resources efforts, allowing them to become more efficient, effective and sustainable. The goal is to institutionalize a framework for delivering structured support, training, and professional development opportunities to all team members across programs, in administration and facilities. The Chief Talent Officer will strategize to enhance staff retention, working across divisions to provide ample professional development and growth opportunities. As they serve over 50,000 people each year at 17 sites on NYC’s Lower East Side, providing innovative and relevant programming is wholly dependent upon their ability to recruit, hire, train, integrate, educate, and retain creative and dedicated staff.

For continued support of the Training Coordinator for their New Jersey Training Institute. Modeled after the HMI National Center for Advocacy and Capacity Building (at HMI’s NYC office), the Institute provides a training series designed to promote evidence-based, best practices to agencies serving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (“LGBTQ”) youth. They will offer a follow-up training for agencies that attended their first sensitivity training during the pilot year, and continue to offer the sensitivity training to new agencies. These training sessions are intended to build the skills and competencies of other service providers regarding best practices for working with and developing targeted programming for LGBTQ youth in a way that is affirming, respectful and sensitive to their needs. Through a comprehensive package of direct services and referrals, HMI fosters healthy youth development with pioneering programs that establish best practices that may be replicated by other youth-serving organizations.

To support a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (“LCSW”) at their 21st Century Learning Center at P.S. 191, a high-needs public school located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Hudson Guild was recently awarded funding from the NYS Department of Education to launch this Learning Center for 90 middle school students. Many students at P.S. 191 have severe behavioral problems and social-emotional challenges which noticeably impact their ability to focus on program activities, interact in a cooperative manner with their peers, and achieve academic success. With the addition of a LCSW, they seek to increase the effectiveness of the Learning Center by better addressing these challenges, and providing support that will better ensure the success of participants in school and beyond. Hudson Guild’s mission is to create and sustain a strong, effective community that acknowledges and responds to the potential, achievements, and interdependence of its diverse members.

For renewed support of the Foster Care Project which promotes family permanency within households with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (“LGBTQ”) youth. They will deliver the newly developed prevention-focused LGBTQ Institute for Family Therapy (“LIFT”) curriculum, a 100-hour certification program, designed for clinicians working directly with families with LGBTQ children involved with the Administration for Children’s Services. The goal is to equip families with the tools and resources to be accepting and affirming of their children and avoid unnecessary placement of LGBTQ youth in foster care, or further child welfare involvement. The grant will support the training of child welfare workers who serve LGBTQ youth and their families, the engagement of 10 families in family-focused counseling sessions and workshops, and the involvement of 30 young people in the FCP’s Youth Speakers Bureau.

To support the new Director of Math Curriculum and Instruction who will build upon the efforts begun last year to assist their High School Equivalency (“HSE”) eligible participants in preparing for and passing the Test Assessing Secondary Completion (“TASC”) as part of their training. Their students have struggled in TASC achievement, especially with regard to math, after New York State switched from the General Equivalency Diploma (“GED”) to the TASC test. The Director will build math-specific HSE prep strategies, incorporate individualized HSE prep schedules, and continue professional development activities begun last year, with a particular focus on numeracy improvement. Their signature Youth Education and Job Training Program combines high school equivalency classes and business skills training to help students take deliberate steps towards economic mobility. OBT is a Brooklyn-based organization, operating out of multiple locations, that provides education, employment and training services to disadvantaged youth and adults.

For support of a new Development Manager position, part of their growing development team, who will report to the new Chief Development and Communications Officer. The Development Manager will oversee all aspects of solicitation, cultivation, reporting and relationship-management for corporate and private foundations. Their goal in this capacity building initiative is to build a strong and sustainable development team to ensure ongoing strategic prospecting and fund diversification, with less dependence upon their annual gala and upon a small number of foundations. PwC works to strengthen the emotional, social and cognitive skills of vulnerable children, targeting the highest-need communities and schools in NYC. By integrating social workers in schools full-time to provide crisis intervention, individual counseling, small group work, full-classroom and school-wide programming, they address the urgent needs of these students and change the climate of the entire school.

To provide continued support for the Outreach Coordinator responsible for the recruitment of CASA volunteers and community outreach. The Outreach Coordinator will develop strategic community partnerships to increase recruitment of volunteers, and raise community awareness around the needs of children in the foster care system in response to the larger numbers of children being referred to the program by the Family Court judges. CASA works through specially trained and supervised volunteers to promote the welfare of children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect or abandonment. CASA volunteers serve as a child’s “Voice in Court” and help to ensure that needed services and assistance are made available to children in out-of-home placements, while at the same time helping to move these children toward safe, nurturing, and permanent homes.

The Oasis Haven for Women and Children, Inc.d/b/a Oasis – A Haven for Women and Children

Paterson,NJ

To support a Vocational Specialist for Women and Youth to lead their enhanced Oasis Works program, a vocational training and job placement program that will link participants to local sustainable employment. The Vocational Specialist will: teach employment readiness courses; work one-on-one with job seekers in their Employment Self-Help Center; teach industry-approved and recognized certification courses in Restaurant, Customer Service, and Bank Teller certification; and oversee the first year of their expansion of a job placement program that links program graduates directly with local internships and jobs. Their social workers will carry out a mental health assessment for each participant and provide support and referrals as necessary. Oasis provides educational and vocational programs that help women enter and succeed in the workforce, and help children flourish academically and stay in school.